NSWFarming
Albion Park
A village that grew at a crossroads when a convict fortune was cut into farms.
1860Terry’s Meadows estate offered as farms
WHAT STARTED IT
The town sits where the coast road from Wollongong crossed the Tongarra road, the old cedar track that ran from the Tongarra Valley to the port at Shellharbour. Both lay across Terry’s Meadows, the rich grant of former convict Samuel Terry.
WHAT SUSTAINED IT
In 1860 the 3,000-acre estate was surveyed into farms of 30 to 200 acres, and by 1880 a village with the Albion Park Hotel had grown at the crossroads. Beef and dairy cattle made it the growing centre of the district, and the municipal council moved here from Shellharbour in 1897.
TURNING POINTS
1821Governor Macquarie grants 2,000 acres to Samuel Terry, the start of the Terry’s Meadows estate.
1860Terry’s Meadows is advertised for sale by auction, to be subdivided into farms.
1880A correspondent describes Albion Park as a village grown at the crossroads of the coast and Tongarra roads.
1897Shellharbour Municipal Council moves its chambers to Albion Park.
1898The road over Macquarie Pass opens a route to the Southern Highlands.
WHAT IT DOES NOW
A town of about 13,800 people in the Macquarie Valley under the escarpment. The road west from the old crossroads still climbs to the highlands over Macquarie Pass.